Nanotechnology

News Releases

Public Release: 3-Dec-2014 Nano LettersWireless nanorod-nanotube film enables light stimulation of blind retina
Scientists have developed a new light-sensitive film that could one day form the basis of a prosthetic retina to help people suffering from visual impairment. Hebrew University researchers collaborated with Tel Aviv University and Newcastle University colleagues to develop a novel device that absorbs light and stimulates neurons without using wires or external power. Combining semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes, it could potentially form part of a future prosthetic device that replaces damaged retinal cells.
Israel Ministry of Science and Technology, European Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 3-Dec-2014 Nature CommunicationsComputer model enables design of complex DNA shapes
MIT biological engineers have created a new computer model that allows them to design the most complex three-dimensional DNA shapes ever produced, including rings, bowls, and geometric structures such as icosahedrons that resemble viral particles.
Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 2-Dec-2014 Nano LettersNew technique simultaneously determines nanomaterials' chemical makeup, topography
A team of researchers from the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Ohio University have devised a powerful technique that simultaneously resolves the chemical characterization and topography of nanoscale materials down to the height of a single atom.
Department of Energy

Public Release: 2-Dec-2014 Nano EnergyAtmospheric carbon dioxide used for energy storage products
Researchers have discovered a fascinating new way to take some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that's causing the greenhouse effect and use it to make an advanced, high-value material for use in energy storage products.

Public Release: 2-Dec-2014 Nature CommunicationsA better look at the chemistry of interfaces
SWAPPS -- Standing Wave Ambient Pressure Photoelectron Spectroscopy -- is a new X-ray technique developed at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source that provides sub-nanometer resolution of every chemical element to be found at heterogeneous interfaces, such as those in batteries, fuel cells and other devices.
US Department of Energy Office of Science

Public Release: 2-Dec-2014 Nano LettersNanotubes may restore sight to blind retinas
Retinal degeneration is one of the most worrisome dangers in the aging process. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have made an important technological breakthrough towards a prosthetic retina that could help alleviate conditions that result from problems with this vital part of the eye.

Public Release: 2-Dec-2014 eLifeRevealed: How bacteria drill into our cells and kill them
A team of scientists has revealed how certain harmful bacteria drill into our cells to kill them. Their study shows how bacterial 'nanodrills' assemble themselves on the outer surfaces of our cells, and includes the first movie of how they then punch holes in the cells' outer membranes.

Public Release: 1-Dec-2014'Smart dust' technology could reshape space telescopes
Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory are exploring a new type of space telescope with an aperture made of swarms of particles released from a canister and controlled by a laser. These floating lenses would be larger, cheaper and lighter than apertures on conventional space-based imaging systems like NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescope.
NASA

Public Release: 1-Dec-2014 Nature MaterialsPenn research shows way to design 'digital' metamaterials
Figuring out the necessary composition and internal structure to create the unusual properties of metamaterials is a challenge but new Penn research, borrowing concepts from binary computing, presents a way of simplifying things.
Office of Naval Research

Public Release: 1-Dec-2014 Nature NanotechnologyPossible read head for quantum computers
Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds could be used to construct vital components for quantum computers. But hitherto it has been impossible to read optically written information from such systems electronically. Using a graphene layer, a team of scientists headed by Professor Alexander Holleitner of the Technische Universität München has now implemented just such a read unit.
German Research Foundation, European Research Council, EU Marie Curie Program

Public Release: 1-Dec-2014 ScienceMicrobullet hits confirm graphene's strength
Rice University scientists use microbullets in experiments to show graphene is 10 times better than steel at absorbing the energy of a penetrating projectile.
Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Welch Foundation

Public Release: 27-Nov-2014 Physical Review LettersScanning tunneling microscopy: Computer simulations sharpen insights into molecules
The resolution of scanning tunneling microscopes can be improved dramatically by attaching small molecules or atoms to their tip. The resulting images were the first to show the geometric structure of molecules and have generated a lot of interest among scientists over the last few years. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague have now used computer simulations to gain deeper insights into these new imaging techniques.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2014 Advanced Energy MaterialsNew electrolyte for the construction of magnesium-sulfur batteries
The Helmholtz Institute Ulm established by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is pushing research relating to batteries of the next and next-but-one generations: A research team has now developed an electrolyte that may be used for the construction of magnesium-sulfur battery cells. With magnesium, higher storage densities could be achieved than with lithium. Moreover, magnesium is abundant in nature, it is non-toxic, and does not degrade in air. The new electrolyte is now presented in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesParticles, waves and ants
Particles or waves traveling through disordered media are scattered at small impurities. Surprisingly, the density of these impurities does not affect the overall dwell time the particle -- or wave -- spends inside the medium. This remarkable finding applies not only to particles and waves, but also to crawling ants or drunken sailors hitting streetlamps.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2014 NatureProtons fuel graphene prospects
Graphene, impermeable to all gases and liquids, can easily allow protons to pass through it, University of Manchester researchers have found.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2014 Physical Review LettersThe mysterious 'action at a distance' between liquid containers
For several years, it has been known that superfluid helium housed in reservoirs located next to each other acts collectively, even when the channels connecting the reservoirs are too narrow and too long to allow for substantial flow. A new theoretical model reveals that the phenomenon of mysterious communication 'at a distance' between fluid reservoirs is much more common than previously thought.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2014 Nature CommunicationsVan der Waals force re-measured
Van der Waals forces act like a sort of quantum glue on all types of matter. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich experimentally determined for the first time all of the key details of how strongly the single molecules bind to a surface. They demonstrated that the forces do not just increase with molecular size, but that they even grow disproportionately fast. Their findings could help to improve simulation methods for chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science.

Public Release: 26-Nov-2014 Nature Communications'Giant' charge density disturbances discovered in nanomaterials
Scientists in Jülich have, with the help of computer simulations, discovered a combination of materials that strengthens the so-called Friedel oscillations and bundles them, as if with a lens, in different directions. With a range of 50 nanometers, these 'giant anisotropic charge density oscillations' are many times greater than normal and open up new possibilities in the field of nanoelectronics to exchange or filter magnetic information.
Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups

Public Release: 25-Nov-2014NASA's Webb Telescope mirror tripod in action
Setting up NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's secondary mirror in space will require special arms that resemble a tripod. NASA recently completed a test of the tripod to ensure it would function properly in space.
NASA

Public Release: 24-Nov-2014Two Rutgers professors named fellows of top national science association
Two Rutgers professors are among 401 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science who have been elevated to the rank of fellow. The pre-eminent national organization selects its fellows based on their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.